Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
67. Gap (6)
Bamboo leaves shook, and a path opened.
On the opened road, two swaying shadows were walking.
Was it because of the figure’s powerless movements? The sound of the wind sounded ominous.
Juk-ho bowed his head as if he couldn’t bare to look straight at them, and Hwang Jiho mumbled quietly.
“Even after taking revenge, nothing has changed, eh…?”
“…”
Because the bamboo shot high into the sky, not much light entered the bamboo forest.
It so happened that it was time for the sun to set, so it was gradually getting darker.
At first, I thought I couldn’t make out their faces because the surrounding was simply dark and they were far away.
But it seemed my thoughts were wrong.
They had intentionally covered their faces.
‘They’re wearing masks.’
The couple was wearing masks.
They were plain white masks with gaps only for eyes and mouth, so it really seemed they were masks only used for covering faces.
If I had to wear a mask, I also wanted to wear something like this, but I probably should reconsider it.
Looking at the masks the couple was wearing, they gave me creeps.
“Long time no see, Hwangho-nim.”
“From my perspective, just half a year has passed.”
“It was just a half a year?”
The Ho tribe’s couple wearing white masks greeted them sluggishly.
Unlike the terrifying feeling the masks gave off, their greeting was polite and they comfortably held a conversation.
It wouldn’t express it as amicable, but the atmosphere wasn’t so bad.
Until Hwang Jiho asked a question about the masks.
“Do you plan to keep wearing those masks?”
The Ho couple that was unable to maintain their balance and shaking, fully froze in their movements.
The couple quietly stared at Hwang Jiho through the holes for the eyes in the masks.
“Huhuhu, Hwangho-nim. Why are You asking for something obvious?”
“What parents, who couldn’t protect their child and sent her away first, would want to show themselves in the light of day?”
“Our sins are heavy, we do not dare to show our faces under the Heavens. You must understand it very well.”
“Our child vanished without even being able to see the light of the world. How can we live in that light?”
The words ‘without being able to see the light of the world’ hung on my mind.
No way, was this a miscarriage?
Hearing those words, I felt sorry for thinking the couple looked dreary.
They were just parents, who lost their child, but I thought they were scary?
“… Alright. I was shortsighted.”
“No. Wasn’t it us, not Hwangho-nim, who couldn’t protect our child? It’s all our fault.”
“I didn’t mean to blame you.”
Hwang Jiho bitterly took a step back.
It seemed that Hwang Jiho thought that the revenge on the Ung would become a trigger for the couple to take off their masks, but it appeared it was still too early.
“…. A human here?”
Then, the gazes of the couple turned to me.
Did Hwang Jiho not tell them beforehand that I was coming?
The couple, who doubted why I, a human, might be here, suddenly exclaimed a short ‘ah!’ and walked up to me.
As the couple wearing the like blank pieces of paper masks started to swayingly walk, there was a substantial sense of pressure.
If I didn’t know that couple’s story already, I might have unconsciously activated Gwangrim to deal with them.
The couple was about to approach enough to grab my hands, but they stopped a step away from where Hwang Jiho was.
“You must be the Ho tribe’s benefactor! We greet You, benefactor.”
“The two of us will never forget this grace. We apologize for late greetings.”
“We achieved our long held wish thanks to You. And Eunho-nim’s descendants are also safe. We are really thankful to You.”
The couple continued to bow their heads and thank me.
I told them that I didn’t do anything that day and that the Ung tribe members were captured by other Ho tribe members including Hwang Jiho, but the couple didn’t properly take in what I said.
“Benefactor is so humble. We’ve heard that Hwangho-nim and Baekho-nim moved thanks to clues[1] provided by benefactor.”
“I also heard that the benefactor’s wisdom saw through the lousy flock that were fearlessly stomping the land of the divine realm.”
“Yes, if not for the benefactor, how impudently they would act…”
I had no idea what kind of stories about me were circling around the Ho tribe.
It seemed that the stories were exaggerated, so wouldn’t that bastard Hwang Jiho say something?
The couple that was thanking me, this time spoke to Hwang Jiho:
“Hwangho-nim, that’s too much. Why didn’t You inform us of something this important beforehand?”
“If we knew that benefactor was coming, we would prepare a gift.”
Then, Hwang Jiho, who was wordlessly watching the situation with the corners of his lips raising, opened his mouth:
“Jo Uisin hates cumbersome things. It was clear that he would make a fuss, so how about I inform you beforehand in the future? But You know very well that Jo Uisin is the Ho tribe’s benefactor, huh?”
Hwang Jiho seemed to have no plans at all to stop the couple from painting my face golden.
Rather, it seemed like the geezer was instigating it.
The tigers chatted loudly among themselves how good I was, as if they were excited about the stories about the benefactor.
“Isn’t this the only human Hwangho-nim could have brought here?”
“It’s natural to recognize the benefactor, who let us take revenge on the enemy and save Eunho-nim’s descendants.”
“Excellent. Worthy of the members of the Ho tribe led by this one.”
Hwang Jiho joined the couple’s conversation and took the lead in painting my face gold.
I expected it, but I would have rather just remained in the Newspaper Club and listen to Mun Saeron talk about her overseas coverage trip and Yeom Junyeol’s master.
After I lost my soul listening to the tigers’ conversation, the words about the Ung finally came out.
The couple spoke with a bright tone, as if they were in a much better mood than when they first appeared.
“Now that I think about it, You have come here today to interrogate that Ung piece of trash, that we’re going to beat to death, correct? Ah, I say beat to death, but we don’t have plans to kill him this easily.”
“Let’s go together. We’ve also attempted numerous ways, but we’re curious with what kind of method Hwangho-nim is going to cook that bear.”
Was Hwang Jiho planning to personally torture him?
That was a bit unexpected.
Wasn’t the most outstanding torture specialists among the Ho tribe Kim Sinrok?
‘Even when the Ho tribe members tried to interrogate the Ung, they couldn’t obtain any particular information… until Kim Sinrok tortured them.’
Not much information was obtained from the Ung tribe, but all the information that was obtained was from Kim Sinrok.
So I naturally expected that Kim Sinrok would be called.
I also thought that the ‘permission’ that Hwang Jiho received was for a permission for Kim Sinrok to torture that Ung.
Looking at Hwang Jiho’s expression, it seemed there was some kind of mistake.
Hwang Jiho asked Juk-ho.
“…It seems that not everything was conveyed properly, eh? Was the letter I sent delivered?”
“I opened the gap in the Garden’s space-time, put in the letter and received a reply. But from what They say, it appears that a problem occurred.”
Juk-ho covered his mouth with a long sleeve and fell into thought.
When Juk-ho let go of his sleeve, he was making a complicated expression, as if he figured out the cause.
“It appears I didn’t fix it properly when the Garden’s space-time axis was shaken last time. I apologize…”
“Your disciple holds such a powerful power, it can’t be helped. It’s not your fault.”
It seemed that a big problem occurred in the process of communication.
The couple, who heard Hwang Jiho and Juk-ho’s conversation, asked:
“What do You mean? Did we read the letter wrong?”
“The letter was a bit ripped. And some letters were smudged. We replied based on what we could read…”
“Ah, so, um… in the letter I delivered…”
When Juk-ho fumbled with his words, Hwang Jiho stopped Juk-ho and spoke instead.
“Not a long time ago, Juk-ho accepted a disciple with an enormous power. That disciple has a very strong water power.”
The disciple with a water power must be Kim Yuri, who was connected to all kinds of water gods through Gwangrim.
But how did this situation relate to Kim Yuri?
As if the couple felt the same as me, they slightly tilted their heads, perking up their ears.
“The disciple is unskilled at controlling that power, so it goes wild, and every time Juk-ho is calming down that power. The energy that resulted from it was so excessive, it promoted the growth of the bamboo forest beyond what’s necessary.”
“It’s not my disciple’s fault. It’s all because I’m unskilled… Hahaha.”
Kim Yuri didn’t show it even once in front of the class children, but I guess the private lessons with Juk-ho weren’t going smoothly.
Thinking about our class president and my Playable Character, who, even though she was working so hard, was always smiling in front of the class children and working hard to manage the class, my heart hurt.
But why was Hwang Jiho explaining this so minutely?
‘No way, what the letter didn’t contain was…’
The relation between the Ho tribe and Ung tribe, the couple, who lost their offspring, the torture of Ung.
Thinking about the three, I had a guess what was missing from the letter.
If my thoughts were correct, I understood why Hwang Jiho spoke this long.
If Hwang Jiho made a mistake it would seem like he hid that fact from the couple to obtain their permission.
“The aftereffects of that appeared even in the Garden managed by Juk-ho. So a problem occurred with a letter.”
“We understand that a problem occurred. We also felt the shaking of Juk-ho’s Garden. So what is the problem with the letter?”
“Please tell us what did You originally write.”
Hwang Jiho slowly opened his mouth.
“I wrote that I ask for the interrogation of that Ung to be left to Jeok-ho’s son.”
The couple, who lost their descendant to the Ung tribe, leaving it to Kim Sinrok, who was the descendant of the Ung, who was also a target of revenge.
Emotionally, it wouldn’t be easy.
Hwang Jiho must have explained it like this in consideration of that.
The couple that heard those words, showed no reaction.
The sun had set, while they didn’t react.
After the sun had completely set, and it became dark, Juk-ho lit up a bamboo lantern.
Once a flame lit up, the couple opened their mouths as if they came back to their senses.
“… Hwangho-nim, are You not going to personally interrogate that dirty Ung?”
“I plan to observe, but I was going to leave the interrogation to Kim Sinrok.”
The couple, who heard Hwang Jiho’s reply, spoke.
Their voices seemed to be forcibly squeezed out.
“… Do we have a choice in this matter?”
“Yeah. Didn’t I say that you can do whatever you like with that Ung?”
If Hwang Jiho just made up his mind, he could force them to accept that Kim Sinrok would interrogate that Ung.
If it was the Ho tribe’s head’s order, Juk-ho would move and the couple would have to step back.
Even so, Hwang Jiho chose to respect the couple’s opinion.
The couple looked at each other’s white masks, then opened their mouths:
“… We need some time to think.”
At the couple’s words, Hwang Jiho nodded.
“Got it. I’ll contact you later.”
After the couple asked to be excused and left first, they escaped into the bamboo forest.
Once their silhouettes completely disappeared.
“I’m sorry I made you come all the way here.”
Hwang Jiho stared into the air and spoke.
Somehow it didn’t seem that the target of the apology was just me.
“It wasn’t that I wanted you to cover yourself to hear something like this. I simply didn’t want to tell you to meet face to face.”
No way, they were here right now?
I hoped that my prediction was wrong, but Hwang Jiho soon called out their names.
“… Jeok-ho, Kim Sinrok. Let’s just go back.”
The moment Hwang Jiho said that, at the end of Hwang Jiho’s gaze, red smoke bellowed up.
In the red smoke, I saw Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok.
I guess Jeok-ho used Red Smoke to cover their presence.
‘Were those two here from the beginning…!?’
Jeok-ho was expressionless, but Kim Sinrok’s face was pure white.
*~*~*
[1] clues — words that later became evidence, or that allow one to guess the future, or a pledge for some kind of event/work.
Translator’s note: How Hwang Jiho handles this entire situation from beginning to end really goes to show how great of a leader he is. He doesn’t get enough praise for that.
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